SOUTH AFRICA:One of South Africa's richest men,Tokyo Sexwale, has rejected as "kite-flying" reports that he had been asked to run for the position of African National Congress (ANC) president. The Johannesburg-based Sunday Timeshad reported that Mr Sexwale was campaigning for the job behind the scenes.
Mr Sexwale, a former freedom fighter and Robben Island prisoner, the paper said, was seeking the endorsement of ex-president Nelson Mandela for the post, which is traditionally a stepping-stone to the nation's presidency.
Mr Sexwale left active politics almost 10 years ago after falling out with president Thabo Mbeki, whose second term of office lapses in 2009.
However, the Times said, the businessman had recently begun high-level discussions with supporters of both Mr Mbeki and controversial ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, around whom dissident figures in the party have been gathering.
"Sexwale, who is projecting himself as a compromise candidate in the ANC's messy succession battle, has developed a strategy for his bid for the ANC presidency and the country's top job," the paper said, citing unnamed high-ranking ANC sources.
The leadership battle, culminating in a conference in December, is expected to be the fiercest contest in its 95-year history. The winner will likely succeed Mr Mbeki as president in 2009. The positions of party leader and state president have been held by the same person since the ANC came to power in South Africa's first democratic poll in 1994.
Mr Mbeki cannot run for a third term as president under South Africa's constitution, but he can run again for party leadership and his supporters want him to retain that kingmaker's role.
Mr Zuma was seen as a leading contender for the top job before being sacked as deputy president because of a graft case against him, which was later dropped.
He retained the second most powerful job in the party, but his supporters - many from communist, labour and youth allies of the ANC - remain bitter about what they regard as a conspiracy to deny Mr Zuma the presidency.
Both Mr Sexwale and Mr Zuma were jailed on Robben Island with Mr Mandela for conspiring to overthrow white apartheid rule. Mr Sexwale later served as premier of Gauteng province, home to both Johannesburg and Pretoria, but left politics in 1998.
- (Additional reporting Reuters)